6B - The Michigan Daily - SportsWednesday - January 5, 2005
Kaleniecki extends scoring streak
By Seth Gordon
Daily Sports Writer
After leading the Michigan hockey team in goals
last year, Brandon Kaleniecki found himself in a
slump to start this season. But the junior forward hit
his stride just in time to lead a depleted Wolverine
offense in the Great Lakes Invitational at Joe Louis
Arena in Detroit with two goals, earning him All-
Tournament honors.
"Brandon got off to a disappointing start (this
season)," Michigan coach Red Berenson said.
"It seems like he scores in bunches. He's a streak
scorer, but, once he gets going and he gets his con-
fidence, it just fuels his work ethic. He's always a
hard worker, even when things aren't going well.
But when they are going well, he really picks up the
pace. That's what you're seeing now."
The disappointing start to the season was epito-
mized by missed shots on open nets, shots that hit
the crossbar °or shots stopped by great saves. The
result was just two goals and three assists in Michi-
gan's first 14 games.
But Kaleniecki began to turn things around in
the beginning of December. He entered the G.L.I.
having scored goals in back-to-back games against
Bowling Green and having totaled four points in
the last four games before the holiday tournament.
goal. H
SPARTANS gave us
Continued from page 1B solid ho
When we got back there, I was going Michi
to just leave it for him there and settle pionshi]
it down. I think we just got tied up." early in
Even before the handoff, Ruden - in a don Ka
hurry to get the puck out of the Michigan Michiga
zone - came around the wrong side of the ice,
his goal. goalten
"It was a mental error," Ruden said. "I initial s]
went the wrong way when I went behind vented
the net, and I was too late getting back in. and kno
I am supposed to follow the play. If I fol- Frett
low the play - which we're taught to do Wolveri
- even if (the puck) is coughed up, I am phy bad
there in net." was ple
The only other goal the Spartans man- formed(
aged to slip past Ruden came in the first and sev
period when Miller took the puck behind senting1
Michigan's net and slid it to Michigan Junior C
State forward and tournament Most Valu- "Wh
able Player Jim Slater. Slater lifted the kind oft
puck over Ruden's extended leg. The puck the gam
hit Ruden's pad, bounced to the far post how our
and slid in before Michigan defender Tim and gav
Cook could fish it out. game fc
Despite the two goals, Michigan coach score th
Red Berenson was satisfied with Ruden's our team
play. With the loss of starter Al Mon- Mich
toya to the World Junior Championships, champio
Berenson relied on Ruden to give his team gan Tec
a chance to win its first Great Lakes Invi- night ea
tational Championship since 1996. Kaleniec
"(Ruden) definitely showed us that he man Br
can play," Berenson said. "That was a the scor
good weekend for Noah, even though he three M
was a big part of screwing up that last son, Jas
goal, that overtime goal. That was a gift Wolveri
"At the beginning of the year, there was more
pressure because I was the leading scorer," Kalen-
iecki said. "As the season has gone on, and you see
everyone else scoring, it takes a lot of pressure off."
But just when the pressure to score seemed to
retreat, Michigan lost several of its best scorers to
the World Junior Tournament.
"In terms of the G.L.I., I think everyone on our
team knew they had to step up in their own way,"
Kaleniecki said. "I think when you do lose guys
like T.J. (Hensick) and Kevin (Porter) - who, obvi-
ously, have scored a lot of points - everyone has to
try a bit harder to score goals."
It would seem that Kaleniecki took the challenge
personally, as he scored the opening goal of the
tournament for the Wolverines in their 4-2 semifi-
nal win over Michigan Tech last Wednesday.
Defenseman Brandon Rogers found Kaleniecki
alone in front of the net with a pass from the bottom
of the right faceoff circle. Michigan Tech goalie
Cam Ellsworth played the pass like a shot, which
left him way out of position and gave Kaleniecki an
empty net to shoot at. He didn't miss.
"Both my goals this weekend were just in front of
the net or right around the net, and I think I'm get-
ting back to that," Kaleniecki said. "That's where
I've had most of my success, so I think that's the
biggest thing I've been doing - just going to the net
or finding a little area around the net or in the slot a
little bit more now."
Applying this philosophy is just what Kaleniecki
did to get Michigan back in the championship game
against Michigan State on Friday. With Michigan
trailing 1-0 for most of the game, Kaleniecki found
himself behind the net with the puck just one min-
ute into the third period.
"Before the game, we talked about how their
defensemen like to reverse the puck to each other,
go D-to-D behind the net," Kaleniecki said. "So
when I was chasing the guy on the faceoff, I knew
he was going to do it. When I saw he was going
to do it, I stuck my stick down back there and got
lucky, and the puck was just sitting there."
Kaleniecki circled to his right and jammed a
backhand wrap-around shot at the Michigan State
net. The first attempt didn't go in. But on the second
try, the puck snuck between Michigan State goalie
Dominic Vicari's pads as Kaleniecki was knocked
to the ice.
The two goals on the weekend extended Kalen-
iecki's goal streak to four games and gave him six
points in his last six games.
"We had a chance to win it," Kaleniecki said.
"We didn't get it done, but we worked as hard as
we could and gave it everything we had. We almost
came out with it."
AP PHOTO
Junior Brandon Kaleniecki started the season slowly but has scored in Michigan's last four games.
e made some big saves, and he
a chance all weekend. He played
ckey."
higan's lone goal in the cham-
p game tied the game at one
nthe third period. Junior Bran-
leniecki came from behind the
an State net and, while lying on
poked the puck past Spartans'
der Dominic Vicari. After the
hot was stopped, Kaleniecki pre-
Vicari from covering the puck
)cked it in.
er's overtime goal ended the
ines' dream of bringing the tro-
ck to Ann Arbor. But Berenson
ased with the way his team per-
despite the absence of Montoya
eral other stars that were repre-
the United States in the World
Championships.
en you win or lose in overtime, it
takes away from how you played
ae," Berenson said. "I really liked
r team dug down and played hard
e ourselves a chance. It was a good
or Michigan. Although we didn't
e goal in overtime, I was proud of
M."
igan earned the right to play in the
onship game by defeating Michi-
eh (1-13-0 WCHA, 1-16-1) 4-2 a
rlier. Michigan scored early when
cki fielded a pass from defense-
andon Rogers. The Huskies evened
e midway through the second, but
ichigan goals by Charlie Hender-
on Ryznar and David Moss gave the
nes a lead they did not surrender.
0 WRESTUNG
Churella leads Blue 1n comeback victory
By Seth Gordon
Daily Sports Writer
The No. 5 Michigan wrestling team overcame a 9-
0 deficit to earn a 24-15 victory over No. 14 Central
Michigan at Cliff Keen Arena on Sunday. The arena
was packed with fans and was divided almost equally
between Wolverine and Chippewa supporters.
The highlight of the match was the showdown
between Central Michigan's No. 2 David Bol-
yard and Michigan's No. 4 Ryan Churella at 165
pounds. The two wrestlers emerged from the first
period scoreless before Churella took control of
the match with several takedowns in the second.
Entering the third period with an 8-0 advantage,
Churella earned one more point for riding time
and earned a 9-0 shutout.
"Ryan is a monster," Michigan coach Joe
McFarland said. "He's really adjusted to that
weight class. He just went out there and really
stayed on it. He's tough on top. He's really devel-
oped in all of his areas. But when he's on top, he
can score a lot of points."
The win gave Michigan a 14-9 lead - a lead it
never relinquished.
The following match at 174 pounds provided
quite an encore to the featured match at 165.
Michigan's No. 11 Nick Roy faced off against
Central Michigan's No. 8 Mitch Hancock. After the
first period saw warnings to each wrestler for stall-
ing, Roy took a 3-0 lead in the second. Hancock
got as close as 3-2 in the third before Roy scored a
two-point takedown with just six seconds left in the
match to preserve the victory, 5-2.
"I thought, for the most part, we wrestled hard,"
McFarland said. "We wrestled intense. I just wasn't
happy with the effort at a couple of those weight
classes. Really, the ones we lost, I thought we were
capable of winning all of those matches. That's
what I'm disappointed in."
After falling behind 18-9 following Hancock's
loss, Central Michigan made a charge at Michi-
gan with two consecutive victories at 184 and 197
pounds. No. 19 Alex Lammers earned a 4-2 victory
over Wolverine Joshua Weitzel and Central Michi-
gan sophomore Wynn Michalak won a 11-7 decision
over senior Willie Breyer to bring the Chippewas
within six points at 21-15.
In a surprise move, the Chippewas sent sopho-
more Bubba Gritter onto the mat against No. 2
heavyweight Greg Wagner. Central had the option to
wrestle No. 11 Bill Stouffer, but went with Gritter
against the undefeated Wagner. Wagner dominated
the match and scored several late takedowns to earn
an 8-3 decision and make the final team score 24-15.
"I thought Wagner did a good job," McFarland
said. "He kept the pressure on and scored a lot of
points late in the match, which is important."
Michigan opened the match with an unexpected
move as well, forfeiting the first match and six points
at 125 pounds. Junior Mark Moos - ranked No. 5
at 125 pounds by Amateur Wrestling News - made
the jump up to 133 pounds to face No. 20 Jason
Borelli. Moos led early in the match but eventually
lost a 10-8 decision after Borelli scored a take down
and several near-fall points in the final frame.
"I think we're going to bump (Moos) up (to 133
pounds) for the rest of the year," McFarland said.
"Mark has been having a hard time with his weight,
and I think the best thing is to move him up. I think
he'll be more comfortable at 133. He's just really
outgrown 125."
After Central forfeited the 149-pound match,
No. 3 Ryan Bertin - Michigan's senior captain
- squared off against unranked Eric Neil. Bertin
raced out to an 8-3 lead by the second period, but
suffered a deep cut over his right eye 1:48 into
the period.
"We kind of just smashed heads," Bertin said.
"We both shot at the same time, and I caught the
corner of his head, and my head split open."
After a long delay to tend to the injury, Bertin
returned and finished off Neil with a 16-6 major
decision.
Before last week, Bertin had never had the mis-
fortune of having stitches before. But after a similar
injury in practice a few days before, he has now had
them sewn in twice in less than seven days.
"It bothered me a little bit, but you just keep
wrestling," Bertin said.
The match was the Wolverines' first since a 40-9
drubbing of Cleveland State at home on Dec. 10, but
conditioning did not seem to be a real factor after a
hard week of practice following the holidays.
McFarland will prepare his team for the Lone
Star Duels on Saturday in Dallas. The Wolverines
will square off in three consecutive dual meets
that day against No. 4 Nebraska, No. 23 Army and
unranked Stanford.
Basketball
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